Yoshihiro Narisawa, chef/owner, Narisawa (1st Place), Tokyo

Steamed Japanese white rice and tomato-based pasta are high on his culinary love list.

“We get our rice from an organic rice producer,” says Narisawa, whose modernist approach has earned him the top spot on the 2013 San Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best list. He placed 27th in last year's World's Best list.

“This rice is farmed for subsistence but the farmer offers it to us.

“I also enjoy pasta prepared with tokutani tomate, a tomato with high sugar content from Kochi Prefecture,” says Narisawa. “I like dishes where I can taste the sheer [flavor] of the ingredients.”

“I never eat nor cook food produced against the law of nature,” he says. “This includes processed food with chemical substances and genetically modified vegetables -- they destroy the future of all life on earth.”

Andre Chiang, chef/owner, Restaurant Andre (5th Place), Singapore

“Pork and pork and pork, it can never go wrong,” says Chiang, whose eponymous restaurant in Singapore hit fifth place in the Asia's best list and was ranked 68th on the 2012 San Pellegrino World 100 Best list -- barely two years after its debut.

Paul Pairet will eat pretty much anything, unless it barks. “Pork and charcuterie might be my all time favorites,” says Paul Pairet, former chef de cuisine of Jade on 37 and who was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Asia's 50 best. “Iberico, Bayonne ham, peasant ham, you name it.”